May 09, 2012
Match 05 For this 5th series, both Justin Wong and Veer Hitt will be debuted their new shoes. Justin wore the Adidas Samba while Veer wore the Nike Tempo. The Rage had hopes that their new shoes would enhance their performance for this series. This series was a 2v3 with Daisee playing for the Angers. Game 1 was a pure dominance by the Rage as earned their first shutout win. Their strategy of shutting down Raj Kumar worked as they were able to prevent him from scoring any goals in the game. Game 2 was a little closer, but again, the Rage went on to win this game taking a 2-0 series lead. Raj was shut down again. For the 3rd game, Raj switched to defend the net, and this seemed to provide better results as the Rage weren't able to get many shots on Raj. Not only did he block the shots in the goal, but also fired several long range shots from his own end that managed to find the Rage's net. Afterwards, he came up and scored more goals to give the Angers a 5-3 win. This sort of play countered the Rage's initial strategy. The Rage dominated game 4 for the early part as they jumped to a 4-1 lead. However, they couldn't get that 5th and decisive goal. On one play, Justin beat the last defender, but missed an open net to finish the series. The Angers eventually retaliated with 4 unanswered goals in a long drawn game to tie the series 2-2. Due to time constraints, a 5th game was not played, and a draw was declared. Justin led all scorers with 10 goals with a combination of great individual effort and great passes from Veer. Raj and Veer both scored 7 goals each. Raj complained of mild dizziness during the first 2 games. This could have been due to windy and chilly playing coniditions. Veer had a good all-around game with his scoring, and even more so with his passing. However, his offense was non-existent during the last two games. Geoffrey scored 5 goals and it was his timely goals that resulted in the series tie. Raj and Geoffrey adopted a new strategy for the final two games, and played back and forth passing on the offense, exploiting the fact that Rage was short of one player. This quickly depleted Justin's energy as he was unable to check both players, and Raj was forced to play deep in his net, taking an onslaught of shots after shots. The Angers changed their game plan after the defeats in the first two game and it paid off for them. The Rage seemed to be disorientated during the last two games as they didn't follow their strategy that won them the first two games. The Angers currently lead the overall series 3-1-1. There were also some injuries in this hard fought game. Notably, Raj twisted his ankle on a volley attempt, Veer hurt his knee on a collision between him and Raj, Daisee's clearing attempt hit Geoffrey in the nuts, and Justin nearly pulled his calf on several plays. Scoresheet * If necessary Game Statistics Games played | Goals | Goals per game